SQ3R is a reading strategy formed from its letters:

Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review!

SQ3R will help you build a framework to understand your reading assignment.

Before you • the title, headings, and subheadings

read, Survey • captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps
the chapter: • review questions or teacher-made study guides
• introductory and concluding paragraphs

• summary

Question • Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions

while you are • Read questions at the end of the chapters or after each
surveying: subheading
• Ask yourself, "What did my instructor say about this chapter or
subject when it was assigned?"
• Ask yourself, "What do I already know about this subject?"

Note: If it is helpful to you, write out these questions for

consideration. This variation is called SQW3R

When you • Look for answers to the questions you first raised
begin to • Answer questions at the beginning or end of chapters or study
Read: guides
• Reread captions under pictures, graphs, etc.
• Note all the underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases
• Study graphic aids
• Reduce your speed for difficult passages
• Stop and reread parts which are not clear

• Read only a section at a time and recite after each section

Recite • Orally ask yourself questions about what you have just read, or
after you've summarize, in your own words, what you read
read a • Take notes from the text but write the information in your own
section: words
• Underline or highlight important points you've just read
• Use the method of recitation which best suits your particular
learning style but remember, the more senses you use the more
likely you are to remember what you read - i.e.,

TRIPLE STRENGTH LEARNING:

 Seeing, saying, hearing-
QUADRUPLE STRENGTH LEARNING:
Seeing , saying , hearing, writing!!!

Review: Day One

an ongoing
process. • After you have read and recited the entire chapter,
write questions in the margins for those points you have
highlighted or underlined.
• If you took notes while reciting,
write questions for the notes you have taken in the left hand
margins of your notebook.
• Complete the form for a critical reading review

Day Two

• Page through the text and/or your notebook to re-acquaint

yourself with the important points.
• Cover the right hand column of your text/note-book and orally
ask yourself the questions in the left hand margins.
• Orally recite or write the answers from memory.
• Make flash cards for those questions which give you difficulty.
• Develop mnemonic devices for material which need to be
memorized.

Days Three, Four and Five

• Alternate between your flash cards and notes and test yourself
(orally or in writing) on the questions you formulated.
• Make additional flash cards if necessary.

Weekend

Using the text and notebook, make a Table of Contents - list all the
topics and sub-topics you need to know from the chapter.
From the Table of Contents, make a Study Sheet/ Spatial Map.
Recite the information orally and in your own words as you put the
Study Sheet/Map together.

Now that you have consolidated all the information you need for that
chapter, periodically review the Sheet/Map so that at test time you will
not have to cram.
First, get a perspective

• Review the assignment in the syllabus and any handouts (1-2 minutes)
Maybe you are not required to read some sections
• Survey the chapter (5-10 minutes)
for how the content is organized; get the "big picture"
This is not to fully understand, rather develop preliminary associations of bits of
information that later will help you understand
Quickly page through the introduction, the summary, vocabulary list, self-test
questions, headings, boldfaced material, major graphics, etc.
Notice the major concepts, definitions, descriptions, causes, effects and
arguments.
• Check out the media, the CD and website (if available)
to see what they contain
• Take no notes, and mark no text in this phase

First reading

Make the main purpose of your first reading simply to read and get a good idea of
the material: what you understand, and what you do not
A science text presents new and complex material which may be difficult to understand.
One piece builds on another to help you build your understanding.
The text can provide the foundation for understanding, and bring together information in
lectures, labs and hands-on experiments, field trips, and media.

• Read sentences, paragraphs and short passages with 1-second pauses.

Read and pause, read and pause. Let your mind assemble the parts you just read
to give you the meaning of the whole unit. This assembly of meaning happens
fairly automatically as long as you are intentionally looking for meaning and
paying attention to the meanings
• Look back and forth between words and related graphics
until you can see/tell yourself how they are showing/saying similar things.
A set of text passages that is related to graphics is very useful to understanding.
There are many kinds of graphics: pictures, diagrams, maps, charts, tables, graphs
• From time to time, ask yourself if you are "on track" to understanding
If you find yourself reading without understanding, stop and ask why.
Is it a question of complexity or distraction? of preparation or terminology?
If you think it is serious, ask your tutor, teacher or academic advisor for help
• When you notice that the author is using comparisons and examples,
link them to their descriptions and explanations
• If you are tired and meanings come very slowly into your mind, take a beak
If a break is not possible, vary your study activity. For example, draw a picture
rather than write, walk instead of sit, read aloud rather than silently
• If you return to reading after an absence,
scan the text and your notes again before reading to cue associations
Review of first reading
Return to what you do not understand, or want to reinforce
This is not the stage for memorization, but understanding

• Mark or highlight what you think is important

In the margin, use or develop a system; use letters as
"D" for a definition, "F" for a descriptive fact,
"C" for a cause-and-effect statement, "A" for a scientific argument
"?" for what you do not understand
Other codes you invent for yourself.
• New vocabulary
Write new vocabulary and concepts down
along with a short meanings and/or cues
Keep a list close by or in your notebook
• Create your own visual pictures or images, or concept maps
• Create sensory cues
as heat, brightness, movements
• Read a passage aloud to yourself with normal conversational intonation. Your
translation of printed text into spoken words may activate meanings.
If you can't read aloud, imagine reading aloud and hearing your own voice
• Work out your own explanations of hard-to-understand passages:
Go in short units (a few words at a time), translate their meaning, think of
associations, relate them to other parts of the passage, make inferences and try to
make your mental model of the meaning match the writer’s mental model.
• Mark passages with a question mark that you still do not understand

A second reading

• Only read the material again to understand it.

If you are comfortable with what you understand, proceed to other tasks, like
solving problems, exercises, material on the CD or website, and so on
• In this second reading, if you find you are still having difficulty try
The CD, video, or website
The library and find other texts that may explain it better
Ask the tutoring service or teacher for help
Ask a study group about the material and their experience with it

Review your notes for what you:

• Need to review before any test

• Must memorize
• Need to complete exercises or solve problems
• Need for labs, experiments, future lectures, etc.

Edited from a contribution by Daniel Hodges

• Instructions
How to remember what you read

Do you ever have trouble remembering something you just read? Distractions like
lack of sleep or other anxieties can prevent us from paying complete attention.
Here are tips from Dr. Cynthia Green:

o Pay attention. Do whatever you can to improve your attention for that
information. Remind yourself that you’re trying to remember it.
o Remove distractions. Make the effort to diminish distractions like
background music.
o Improve your lifestyle. Look at your lifestyle habits like eating and
sleeping. Make sure they promote memory health.
o The S.I.N.G. technique. This technique helps you remember what you
read:
o “S” is for stop. Give yourself a moment to focus after reading a piece of
information.
o “I” is to identify the main point—the backbone—of what you read.
o “N” stands for “never mind the details”. Important details will fall into
place once you remember the main point.
o “G” is for “get the gist.” If you can remember the “heart” of the story
along with its “backbone,” you’ll remember the story more effectively.
• Print Instructions
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• Transcript
How to remember what you read

Stacey: I’m Stacey Tisdale for howdini.com. Do you wish you had a better
memory for things you just read? You can, according to Dr. Cynthia Green,
psychologist and author of Total Memory Workout. Thank you so much for
joining us.

Cynthia: Thanks for having me.

Stacey: Sometimes I’ll be reading something, I’ll go to tell someone about it,
details are missing. Why do we have problems remembering something we just
read?

Cynthia: When we read something, we often just go through it once. And if it’s
something like the newspaper, we’re going to be reading one article after another
 after another, so we’re not really giving ourselves an opportunity to get all of that
information by stopping or by rehearsing it.

Stacey: Give me some general tips for improving my memory.

Cynthia: Some general tips on how we can improve our memory for things that
we read, are first of all, to pay attention; to do whatever we can to improve our
attention for that information, to be aware that we want to remember this
information, and to make the effort while we’re reading to really be focused. To
diminish our distractions, to, you know, turn down that music in the background;
to really put ourselves in a place, mentally, where we’re really focused on that
information. Then, also, it’s important to look at our lifestyle day-to-day, and this
is true for anything that we want to remember better. If we want to live a
memory-healthy life, we have to have lifestyle habits in terms of how we sleep
and how we eat that support good memory health.

Stacey: I know you say one technique that can help us remember much better, the
SING technique. S-I-N-G. Tell us what that stands for, starting with the S.

Cynthia: The SING technique is a great technique for remembering stories. S,

which is the first step, stands for stop. Stop yourself; when you finish reading
something, such as a chapter in a book or the end of a newspaper article, stop for
a second. Give yourself a second to focus on what you’ve just read.

Stacey: I.

Cynthia: The next step is to identify the main point of what you read. Everything
that is a story has a main point. Stories are hierarchical. Figure out what that main
point is, and focus on retaining that information.

Stacey: So what’s the N stand for?

Cynthia: N stands for never mind the details. Sometimes we get so caught in the
details that we overwhelm ourselves with information to try to retain.

Stacey: Never mind the details, okay we’re through N, and what’s the G for?

Cynthia: G stands for get the gist. The gist of the story is kind of like having the
heart of the story, in addition to the backbone. And if you do that, you’ll have
completed the SING technique, and I promise that you’ll remember that story
more affectively.

Stacey: I’m going to hold you to that! Thank you so much for joining us. I’m
Stacey Tisdale for howdini.com.

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• Comments
How to remember what you read

2 Comments
• i forget what i read always. after watching this video, i learn something from it.
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REMEMBERING WHAT YOU READ

"I just can't seem to remember well enough to pass the test."

"Names give me trouble. I can't seem to remember them."

"There are so many different items that I can't remember the prices."

Have any of these thoughts ever applied to you? At final exam time, for instance, you
may have difficulty remembering important information. Why is this so? Why are some
things more difficult to remember than others?

You can remember facts if you need to remember them and if you want to
remember them. In other words, your purpose and your motivation make it possible for
you to recall facts. You may not be able to remember your teacher's name, but it is easy
to remember the name of the girl you met at the dance last week--or remember certain
information, your purpose for remembering stands out sharply. You can't seem to
remember facts about the geography of a country that doesn't interest you, but facts about
the country you are all excited about visiting next summer are easy to remember. Why?
Because you have a special reason (purpose) for remembering about the country. You
are motivated and that helps you to concentrate harder. Increased concentration, in turn,
make the information easier to remember. Your purpose helps you to decide which
information to remember, because purpose directs your attention to what you want to
know.

Read the following paragraph only once. Assume that your purpose in reading is to
remember as many of the advantages of physical fitness as you can:

Physical fitness increases the efficiency of your lungs and your heart. It helps you to
control your weight and it is an aid to you in controlling emotional tension and anxiety. It
also helps you to withstand physical fatigue for a longer time.

How many advantages do you remember? Do you think that you will remember
information longer when you know what you are looking for? Do you think that you will
remember the advantages of physical fitness longer if you are personally concerned about
it?

Now that you see how purpose and motivation help you to remember, let us consider the
processes that increase your ability to remember.

• ASSOCIATION: When you associate, you make the things you want to
remember relate to each other in some way. Once you know what your purpose in
reading--that is, once you know the information you are looking for--you can try
to remember this information by fitting it into some general category.
• VISUALIZATION: Visualization helps you to create a strong, vivid memory. Try
to picture in your mind what you wish to remember. Try to remember a man's
name for example, by seeing his face in your mind and associating his name with
it. You can remember an important date in history (perhaps a battle or a peace
meeting or an inaugurating) by picturing the scene in your mind with the date in
big letters in front of this visualization.
• CONCENTRATION: What is concentration? People often say that they can't
concentrate or that they will never be able to learn to concentrate better. Quite
often it is our way of life that takes away our former ability in this area. Small
children are well skilled in concentration. Have you ever seen a youngster so
absorbed in playing a game or in reading or in just daydreaming, or visualizing,
that he doesn't hear when his parents call? He is punished for this and soon learns
that he shouldn't concentrate as hard on what he is doing, but that he should gear
some of his attention to listening for his parent's (or teacher's) call.

Concentration can be defined as focusing attention on one thing and to one thing
only. When you do an exercise which provides an opportunity for you to do this,
it is basically an exercise in concentration. How can you learn to concentrate
better? Visualizing will help. Visualizing forces attention to one thing only. If you
try to see specific pictures as you read, it will help you to concentrate. Not
looking back will also help you to concentrate. When you do not allow yourself to
 look back, you force yourself to concentrate in order to get the meaning the first
time. Making sure of your purpose in a third way to force concentration. When
you read for a particular purpose, you will concentrate on what you read because,
as you read, you ask yourself, "Does this satisfy my purpose?"

• REPETITION: When you have difficulty remembering textbook information, you

should repeat the procedures for associating, visualizing, and concentration. The
first step in remembering a list, for example, is to categorize it (association) and
visualize it (thus forcing concentration). Do this once and then repeat the same
task frequently. The repetition will help burn the information into your memory.

Now, how do you apply association, visualization, concentration, and repetition to

remembering information in textbook chapters?

1. Try to understand the general outline of the chapter. Understanding how the
chapter is put together provides a skeleton to which you can associate specific
information.
2. Visualize as you read. Try to see pictures.
3. Concentrate as you read. Try to read information one time and then without
looking back tell yourself what was said.
4. Repeat where necessary to burn details into your memory.

Remembering what you read

Purpose --Have a specific purpose when you read. This will help you to:

1. ASSOCIATE: Relate ideas to each other.

2. VISUALIZE: Try to see pictures in your mind as you read.
3. CONCENTRATE: Have a specific purpose, associating, and visualizing will help
you to do this.
4. REPEAT: Keep telling yourself important points and associate details to these
points.